Believers are called to holy living. This is the clear teaching of the Bible.
Throughout this blog series, we are considering the question:
“How then does the believer cultivate holiness?”
The first way is to know and love Scripture.
Second, we should consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ.
Third, we should repent daily.
Fourth, we also cultivate holiness through prayer and work.
Fifth, we flee all worldliness.
Sixth, we seek fellowship in the church.
If you want to cultivate a life of holiness make sure you seek fellowship with other Jesus-followers. Associate with mentors in holiness (Eph. 4:12-13; 1 cor. 11:1). The church ought to be a fellowship of mutual care and a community of prayer (1 Cor. 12:7; Acts 2:42). If you meet a fellow believer whose godly walk you find admirable, converse and pray with such folks (Col. 3:16).
“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm” (Prov. 13:20).
Association promotes assimilation. A Christian life lived in isolation from other believers will in turn be defective. We cannot have a heavenly fellowship if we promote a hindering fellowship.
Such conversations, however, ought not to exclude the reading of godly treatises of former ages which promote holiness. Luther once quipped that some of his best friends were dead ones. For example, he questioned if anyone could possess spiritual life who did not feel kinship with David pouring out his heart in the Psalms.
Read classics that speak out vehemently against sin. Let Thomas Watson be your mentor in The Mischief of Sin, John Owen in Temptation and Sin; Jeremiah Burroughs in The Evil of Evils; Ralph Venning in the Plague of Plagues. But also read J.C. Ryle’s Holiness, Octavius Winslow’s Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, and John Flavel’s Keeping the Heart. Let these divines of former ages become your spiritual mentors and friends.
The bottom line is this: you can’t cultivate holiness in Christ without the bride of Christ.
